Commission: Response to Steffi Klenz's tutorial

During Steffi’s tutorial she drew my attention to the photographer, Trish Morrissey, particularly her series ‘Seven Years’ consisting of large-scale colour photographs. She deconstructs family photography by mimicking it, Morrissey becomes director, author and actor staging herself and her sister in fictional scenarios based on conventional family snapshots. 

April 16, 1967

Period clothing, props & the setting of her own, others and family house in Dublin are combined to construct realistic looking family portraits set in the 1970s & 80s looking particularly back at her own childhood in these years. She and her sister become different characters in each image such as their parents, aunts & various friends, employing body language to reveal the psychological tensions present in all family relations.     

No names appear beneath the photographs of these mundane scenes just dates which allow the viewer to gather the decade & time of year. By not titling the images, the event becomes generalisable and the people become anonymous allowing the audience to relate to the events. Morrissey looks at the ‘family album as fiction’ with a feel of innocence existing in the scenes which could suggest something deeper & darker under the façade.

August 8th, 1982

Trish Morrissey is allowing the viewer to witness her photographic practise- imagining, remembering, planning, staging, acting & looking. She is exploring issues such as family experiences, pastimes, fashions, feminine & masculine roles and relationships between the figures and their surroundings. She uses this medium not to define the subject but probe their boundaries seen in everyday life.     

She is capturing moments that we all expect to experience in our lives, these events are very mundane however I still want to look at the bigger events in our lives that we aspire to experience that are accompanied by these ordinary occasions important in their own rights. The images are dated in the 70s & 80s which makes the audience believe that the images were taken in these decades; where are they & who are they, I then begin to wonder what has happened to the people and clothes. This leads to the idea of waste, that even though they were obviously of some importance at this point in time to capture the whole experience everything in the photograph could now be wasted, destroyed over time. 

September 20th, 1985

Through researching her work I have begun to consider further the way I will present my clothes & possibly only presenting clothes that I am personally aspiring to fill in my future & that most other people also seek to achieve. All of the clothes I found in my attic, the ball dress, the wedding dress, the prom dress, all belonged to important people in my life who I look up to; this has made me begin to rethink my shoot possibly making the subject much more personal to me thinking about the way that my dreams of these events stay fresh while the years pass and the clothes still lie wasted waiting to be filled.        

'Betty' 1988

My attention was also brought to a photorealistic painting by Gerhard Richter titled ‘Betty, 1988’, Richter’s daughter is posed facing away from the audience naturally lit in a bright outfit which stands out boldly against the dark backdrop. This high contrast brings clarity to the image, this is enhanced by the distinction created by the mixture of sharp and soft, blurred aspects in the image. This unusual practise makes the audience focus mainly on the shoulder leading the viewer to follow the model’s line of site into the image. It arouses the curiosity of the audience as to what the subject is looking at, what she is responding to; it then leads us to consider her appearance, the model becomes anonymous, faceless and she could be anyone to anyone.

There is a dynamic feel to this portrait but also a sense of frozen, captured time; despite this you are waiting for her to turn around. Because you are left waiting and wondering for eternity I feel the audience is led to believe that she will have the most beautiful face in the world and it can be whoever you want it to be. 

Richter seemed to mistrust what his own eyes witnessed so by basing his paintings on scenes captured by a camera he found that this was reality and true; he ‘always loathed subjectivity’ yet the camera captures reality with a sense of objectivity that he could not personally grasp with his own eyes. 

His daughter, the subject is on the edge of adulthood, turning away from the viewer to contemplate the darkness behind her; this could metaphorically represent the expectations she has put on herself to achieve in the future. A darker feel appears which seems out of place with the peaceful appearance of the work; he is lowering is critical view in portraits of his family members making touching portraits of his growing daughters. Through this Richter emits a distinct feeling of loss in this painting of his daughter as she rises into adulthood. Facing away she is disconnecting herself from the bonds to her father setting out on her journey leaving only memories of her presence. 

She sits leaning away from the black void as if fearing the future and what it may bring as people do as the transcend from childhood to adulthood; there is no perception of depth which draws the audience even further into the image intrigued again as to what she is looking at. Not so much in this painting by in many of richter's portraits the figures seem to jitter in time never quite still as if they could be anywhere & anyone.   

She is thought to be looking at her father’s grey monochrome paintings in the background which could be highlighting her future ambitions and aspirations. The precise way he paints these portraits allows the viewer to analyse every minute detail of the model and clothing; I imagine in my photographs I could use this to highlight their wear and tear through use & waste by using a large format camera. A painting can convey a sense of caring that a photograph does not and despite being taken from a photograph this painting has a personal touch to it. This has made me begin to consider whether my clothes need to be figureless at all and whether I could wear them to highlight this idea of the need to ‘fill their shoes’. Also by doing this I am showing my need and want to care for these discarded items of clothing bringing them out of the darkness represented by a dark background into the focus.

After doing this research I feel that I still want to experiment with my previous, initial idea of shooting the clothes bodyless as if they have been discarded and therefore have lost the memory of their previous owner; however I also want to develop this new idea and represent these ideas of waste in a new way.

I will also start looking more into these new ideas that have come out of the tutorial:

- Aspirational expectations- live up to future expectations- 'fill their shoes' filling previosu generations dresses- my nan, mum and older sister.
- I want to hone in on my theme more precisely- what am I exactly focussing on? What do I want from the viewer?
- Clothes are a representation of you, your personality, your past/family etc.
- Rethink- is it important that they are figureless/bodyless like Yuki Onodera or Danny Treacy's work? Why does it need to be hollow?
- Is there something to show that the items of clothing have been worn or mistreated? eg. rips, stains
- The use of large format photography to enhance the detail of the dresses & exaggerate the feeling of waste in a very personal way.
- By having a dark background which I stand in front of will this draw my audience into the image, fear of what's beyond the figure, the blackness where the clothes came from and will be returned to.

Time Machine task 2: Film Review

Improvised acting & hand-held cameras feature highly in films directed under the rules of the Dogma 95 manifesto which must be strictly adhered to; the film ‘The Idiots’ by Lars Von Trier is one of these.

It is about a group of middle-class people in their 20s whose intention is to ‘spass out’ in public and in the privacy of the home, owned by one of the group member’s uncle which they are staying in. These episodes of retardation are very controversial & give the film a very unconventional way of viewing this sort of behaviour that occurs in society. This seems to be the way that this group of people cope with society despite their everyday occupations such as, a doctor, an advertising agency & an art teacher, as well as escapism from their real lives including wives and children.

After the controversial ‘gang-bang’ scene where teenage Josephine and Jeppe seemed to be falling for each other in their idiot persona, the group are found relaxing out in the garden. The peaceful, idealised scene is disturbed & shattered by Josephine’s father who embarrasses her, invading and bursting the bubble they are living in. When talking to the group he brings up medication issues with his daughter which brings light to a possible mental problem she already has which the group didn’t know about, highlight the possible hypocritical actions of some group members. Her father draws attention to a conflict between the real world and their make believe world by quite aggressively & forcefully removing her from the house. Their happiness is crushed particularly Josephine and Jeppe’s demonstrated by Jeppe’s idiot persona coming out when trying to stop them from driving away; I feel this is the most emotional, dramatic and realistic scene in the crazy world of this film. Despite Jeppe reverting back to his ‘idiot’ persona I feel that this is the only way he can truly express himself which is very moving; it seems he cannot cope with this merge of realism & idealism.

The way Josephine’s father reacted to the knowledge of her personal behaviour and Jeppe’s idiot persona is commenting on our views toward this behaviour in our culture. Another example of this is when the idiots are encountered by real disabled people, and cannot deal with it, the film is acknowledging that these characters can be criticised for what they are doing but it can also be justified as a twisted way of expression. 

There’s this idea that forms from the film that you really have to be an idiot to change society or at least believe that you can. This idea of breaking all of the rules in film making through using the rules of Dogma 95, is metaphorical for the way the group is breaking the rules of authority; being an idiot is an act of despair but also courage. 

When nearing the end of the story it became clear that the game was almost over for them, when some of the group members found that they could not confront and reveal the idiot inside themselves in their personal lives they had to depart from the group. While at the beginning of the story the character, Karen seemed very quiet and withdrawn and was only by chance recruited into the group, at the end she was found to have the deepest character. After volunteering to go home and ‘spass out’ with Susanne as witness, we return to her home where we are finally immersed in complete reality. She is coldly welcomed home by her family who assumed she was dead having been missing for the last 2 weeks as well as being left to wonder why she didn’t attend her baby’s funeral. We find that she is the only person in the group able to spass out in ‘reality’ acting as her baby might have when eating cake, her husband slaps her and she leaves in tears with a tearful Susanne. It is a very shocking and abrupt end to the film, nothing is resolved however it seems that Karen is found to have the most undesired life to go back to which allows her to act out and throw it all away, deserting this lifestyle. 

They have all used ‘spassing’ not to make fun of mentally ill people but to hide away and regress back to their childhood to deal with a society they are opposed to. The character, Stoffer believes ‘They are the ones who are making fun,’ everyone in society who does not take their view; this deflects the argument that all the group does is stir trouble and insult the people in the society they have abandoned. 

The use of a handheld camera adds to the realism & spontaneity of the scenes almost like a home video especially with the quality of the picture. The camera moves freely as if part of the group among the action focussing on the most interesting occurrence. Although very simply and realistically shot, the way of life is very unrealistic enhancing this distortion in the minds and thoughts of the individuals whose characters all slowly develop and emerge throughout the film.

Von Trier plays with the concept of normalcy investigating the way we ought to and ought not to behave by devaluing rationality; we discover that the world begins to fall apart. While on the surface it would seem Von Trier is commenting on the attitudes society has to the mentally handicapped however deeper down it appears to be in defence of abnormality.

I found out that Lars Von Trier’s style of working refers to the French New wave, which was the name given to a group of youthful French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 60s such as Jean-Luc Godard; they have a self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form such as moving freely with the scene rather than keeping the camera position still. He also takes inspiration from the Swinging London period which encompasses the flourishing fashion & cultural scene in the 60s of optimism & hedonism; a cultural revolution.

This strict Dogma 95 manifesto established and followed by Von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg is based on the traditional values of storytelling, acting & theme and excludes the use of elaborate special effects. He also believed in improvisation; however in some places he seems to have broken some of the rules. He uses a stunt double in the ‘Gang-bang’ scene and more importantly he used music. I find that this is a very significant choice that he has made which adds to the film; it is used at pivotal moments to draw attention to them and keep the audience alert. 

I feel over all the film ‘The Idiots’ is about the conflict between a group of middle-classes views on society, their love and hatred towards their own personal lives. There is a battle between the idealised world of innocence and no responsibilities they are able to live in the house and the realistic, sometimes stressful lives they have escaped from and abandoned, possibly because it has become too much for the individual.

Fashion: Constructed Image: Response to meeting 27th Feb

The group has now come to the decision that we will definitely have an Asian female model & a European male model in our shoot; we have also decided that our hotel room will have a low to middle end Western feel.

There were a series of props we discussed a little during our meeting such as a TV, telephone and trouser press which we found we could rent out from a site called http://www.tvfilmprops.co.uk/ if we want to, we were quotes £45 to rent out all of these items for a week but would have to pick up the television if we did this; however Lucie thinks her nan may have an old 60s style telephone we can borrow.

Other props we brought up in conversation were:

-          A tray holding kettle, cup & saucer, glass etc.

-          Ashtray

-          Lamps

-          Top secret documents- blueprints etc. possibly in Chinese

-          Curtains

-          Door

-          Light switches & plugs

We are discussing these items while we continue to search different locations that we can rent or purchase them from including, charity or vintage shops, ebay & other prop rental sites.

We are now exploring the colour scheme for the room, although not agreed on a couple of the group are still happy with the muted, dusky colour swatches I brought to the previous meeting; however we want to incorporate it into a simply patterned wallpaper. I did some investigation into this sort of wallpaper and found some examples that I really liked and thought could be a definite contender when making our final choice.

 

 

 

We are still very interested in wooden panelling on the walls as I feel this was highly featured in 60s décor as seen in the image below:

The group also decided that the scene would be at night therefore we would have the look of completely artificial lamp lighting. Now that we have decided on this Ian our lighting lead can begin to play around with lighting plans. 

We had previously decided we probably wanted the female Asian model to be wearing a red dress to highlight this oriental side as well as the idea of danger; however after looking at some 60s style dresses I really liked a golden dress which thought also gave off an oriental feel. 

We thought that rather than being obvious with the colour scheme there could be accents of reds throughout the image such as in the models accessories eg. handbag & shoes as well as items such as the Top Secret documents. 

I found inspiration for this in a photo shoot by Banner Barrett which was set in a 60s style hotel room where shoes, lamps, telephones & curtains were highlighted in red. I also found these images to be very voyeuristic with continuous inclusion of windows and what looks like a one-sided mirror. 

 

 

When experimenting around with a set model I made I tried out some different camera angles looking through a window with the layout we have finalised; I then made a floor plan, 3D and camera view image of the scene we plan to shoot.

I found through this that we are going to have to consider building an exterior wall as well to frame the window so that we can shoot an edgy angled scene to reflect the edgy espionage scene we hope to create.

Commission: The Object issue lecture & talk by Ulrich Lehmann

From Steffi's lecture I simply picked out a couple of the photographers that caught my eye and really interested me through their subject matter or the way they photographed and presented the subject.
As I have already narrowed down my subject matter and concepts there was no photographer that seemed to look specifically at clothing as a waste product however I found some created similarly presented in a way I wish to.

The first photographer was Simon Ward, he had a series titled 'Still Life' & 'after-life' which contained images of dead animals that he had found and collected in the street or were his pets that had past away; although it is a very morally charged series of images I was very intrigued by his process of working.

Cat, 2002

He used a flat-bed scanner to capture every little detail of the animals body which he then blew up and hung on the walls of the exhibition gallery so that they had to be paid attention to.
I was firstly enthused by the backdrop of the image, the black void which makes the subjects look isolated, alone as if they are floating in space. Suspended in a dark space they could be anywhere, like my clothes that have been hoarded they were lost in our attic for years and I feel with these animals its as if they have been forgotten and left to waste wherever they lay.

Bobsicle, 2009

Although not in all of them, I really like particularly in this image titled 'Bobsicle' the birghtness and purity of the fur makes the image very peaceful despite the nature of the subject; it has come to my attention that all of the clothes I wish to use in my final images are pale & neutral which I think will create a very still image refelcting to themes of waste.

I imagine these two dimensional images to purely portray the shells of the animal, again relating back to materialism I feel our likes are like an animals fur. These possessions are what we will leave behind when we are gone, after we’ve left the clothes abandoned in this unknown void- dark space surrounds them until they are rediscovered or found by a new owner. In the same way I will be presenting my families clothing, I will be carefully looking after the (some fragile) piaces of clothing like Ward seems to look after these lost & dead animals, caring for them despite the fact that, to put it bluntly, they are of no use anymore just like my families clothes are.

I then decided to look further at the series 'Garage' 2008 by Ricarda Roggan  which are taken at night portraying frontal views of wrecked and wasted cars illuminated by harsh lamplights. There is a human feeling of sadness attached to these inanimate objects which almost animates them. They are taken out of any context and dropped into a 'non-space' which allows people to relate to the individual subjects much like the sort of feeling I wish to create in my final commission images. 

'Garage 5' 2008

The cars bumper which has been crushed begins to look like a saddened mouth while the headlamps suggest downcast eyes; themes of abandonement, isolation and death crop up as it is obvious that these cars will never be used again, inevitably a waste material of a society. 

Although harsh, the lighting also in a way seems soft in the way that it fade into the background almost giving the car some dignity, I want to create a soft lighting in my images which does not highlight the backdrop to create a sense of wasted, empty space.

Talk by Prof. Ulrich Lehmann

Due to Ulrich's main field of work being fashion his talk related a lot more to my concept therefore I found some of his links & ideas a lot more useful. He firstly brought up this idea of sustainability- the fashion cycle where fashion in a regenerated way recycled after a period of time. However this does not mean the actually clothing from previous eras are re-used and therefore they are thrown away or or hoarded away as usual replaced by something new.
I was intrigued by the work of Hanna Liden who produced a series of photographs called 'Deli Bag Self Portraits', she is literally wearing waste how we wear clothes everyday which will one day become waste through wear & tear or simply gone out of fashion. The uspide down 'Have a Nice Day' plastic bags are quite ironic in the positive message they are giving off despite the destruction they are having on the earth to be produced and then thrown away.

'Untitled' from the series 'Deli Bag Self-Portraits'

Again in this empty black void she sits which makes the bags stand out boldly against the backdrop, this sense of lostness develops. It is strange how if you wore and old plastic bag that is waste it is bizarre however if I chose to wear my nan's old function dress which has been left to waste for over 40 years it wouldn't been seen as waste any longer but simply an outfit. 

The plastic bag for many is a 'one-use' item used simply to transport shopping home and then thrown away which also relates to my idea of clothes having one use, despite all of the production & money that has gone into producing it. 

- Questions began to emerge- why don't we keep and preserve old things? Well in a way through hoarding this is happening everyday but in a fashion sense things must always be being renewed, replaced by something else. In this sense sustainability is just not possible in a fashion industry, as an item of clothing nowadays is replaced before it has even been used up. 

- I was really intrigued by this quote that Ulrich had by Karl Marx in 1867 who said, '..murderous, meaningless caprices of fashion, caprices that consort so badly with the system of modern industry..' showing that even in the 19th century there was this idea that there was an expiry dat on clothes, they would die & therefore held in time never to be used again. 

-  In fashion there is this saying  'planned  obolescence', which basically means that something is made to go out of fashion after a period of time and then wasted rather than reaching its full potential as an item of clothing. 

- Hoarding counteracts this idea- one-use items of clothing such as wedding dresses are made with great care for a special day and therefore havea lot more care put into them which contradicts this idea that we should be making our everyday clothes well so that they last. 

The second photographer I was most interested in was Hans Peter Feldmann with his series 'All Clothes of a Woman' 1974 which links back to my reserach into an average woman's wasted clothing in her wardrobe.With the same idea that I want to create, Feldmann photographs all 70 pieces of clothing in a woman's wardrobe hung simply & flatly which makes the audience reconstruct the image of the owner whose clothes are being publicly presented. 

'All the Clothes of a Woman' 1974

By presenting them like this I feel each piece of clothing value is raised  as it becomes quite important.  The clothes in the photographs are the same old pieces of clothing they have always been however by contemporarily photographing them they become renewed, a similar effect that I wish to create when photographing my clothes, breathing a fresh breath of air into each item which has been wasting away, unworn for years.

I have been inspired by many aspects of the two lectures we had today whether it be purely production-wise or subject-wise I feel that it has been very interesting and helpful in developing my shoot ideas.  

Time Machine: Response to the 'Photo Essay' lecture

The photo essay seems to be a form of documentary photography- a witness to events, recording, preservation & communicating a narrative.

Politics, activism & advocacy:

- A concern for human consequences
- Strong desire to promote something that has been witnessed and want for change in some way.
- The Western cultural perspective in the 70s is that photography can't make change but simply document events that are witnessed.
- A photo essay carries a factual representation- it gives the viewer a real sense of voyeurism.

- Documentary photography could be considered part of a public art, as a part of activist action & protest.  
- It enables the viewer to perceive a way of responding rather than remaining a passive observer
- No one can truly understand a culture unless they've lived within it for a long period of time, however the Photo essay tries to combat this issue by bringing a variety of cultures to their audience.

Photo essay Photographers

Jim Goldberg

- While visually & photographically recording the subjects Goldberg also records the subjects thoughts usually handwritten by them. 
- The work is all about storytelling, constructing a narrative & evoking response.

-In Photo essays, images are presented in a chronoligical order allowing their audience to develop a story in their minds with little words telling them what is occurring; some photographers that have done this are Mary Ellen Mark with her series 'Streetwise' and Susan Meiselas with her series 'Carnival Strippers'.

In the early 80's Mary Ellen Mark spent time with a community of street kids in Seattle, resulting in a book of her photographs and a documentary film, both titled Streetwise. Here are a selection of images from the book, with the text that goes with them.

Tiny, Halloween, 1983

Tiny, Seattle, 1983

In the early 1970s Susan Meiselas travelled with some small New England and Southern "Girl Shows", including the Club Flamingo, the Star and Garter & the Club 17. Her series 'Carnival Strippers' consists of pictures and text from over 100 hours of interviews. The book has been described as somewhat noir and poignant, some photos are said to shock. It is a journey for the general public to take into the darker, hidden side of American life.

Sebastiao Salgado

- Salgado is known as being an activist before a photographer- constructively intervening in the subject's lives that he is capturing often aiding them.  

- He applies very strong visual aesthetics as an activist to inform and provoke responses from the audience. 

W. Eugene Smith

'What use is having a great depth of field, if there is no depth of feeling.'

- W. Eugene Smith constructs his images to create a beautiful aesthetic to draw attention to the image and then promote emotion within the audience, which leads to an engagement and positive response. 

- Two of Smith's photo essays were brought to our attention in the lecture, the first is Country Doctor, it was first featured in Life magazine containing mainly images but accompanied by paragraphs of text. 

- Again it is set in a chronological order mostly all featuring the doctor during practice, informing the audience as to the way he works through seeing his caring touch with patients.

- It is obvious that he was embedded within his community, as trust is highlighted through the intimacy between the doctor and W. Eugene Smith. 

LIFE magazine 'Country Doctor' double-page spread

- The second photo essay 'Minamata' 1971-73 tells the sotry of a 'one-company town', it goes through the stages.

- It begins with a positive introduction of what seems a peaceful fishing village, the focus then sifts from picturesque scenes to the ugly shapes & forms of industry, there was a sinister beauty to all of the images.

- Suddenly the focus is back on the villagers but this time they were victims, intimately & dispassionately shot portraits of the effects of industrial poisoning.

- W. Eugene Smith shoots the subjects in a way that the audience cannot objectify the victims due to the direct connection through gaze. 

- He moves on to the protest- politics, trials, Smith was part of the campaign, rather than being disconnected he participated therefore his images were very intimate for the audience.

Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, Minamata, 1972

Interesting how they all employ similar elements to create a certain response from their audience, most of the photographers stay with their subjects for a period of time to build trust and a close relationship to allow their audience to delve into a world they have never explored before. 

The use of a photo essay containing images as well as text allows the subjects to communicate their story through the help of the photographer. 

There are often a series of different storylines that run along side each other in an ordered way creating a factual narrative, it is a portrait of for example the town of Minamata as a whole.      

Commission: Initial ideas for shoot

From my research and inspiration which I have blogged about I came up with some possible shoot ideas; I found a box of my baby clothes in the attic as well as my mum's wedding dress, some of her mother's clothing and dresses from me and my sister's various proms. I really liked how I was able to find some of them in images in many of our photo albums, a certain memory associated with the clothes.

I then started taking photographs of some of the clothes with the images of them from photo albums. I tried a couple of times to get to a scanner in uni but didn't manage to so I used a light to photograph my negatives; this created interesting results which I quite liked in the way it metaphorically represents the fading of memory. It is also highlighting the way that clothes can link to a certain memory/moment in time, they look as if they could be trapped in time, unattainable.

However some of my initial choices of clothes matching the images weren't particularly special, inspired by 'My Mother's Wedding Dress' book I started thinking about outfits that only get used once in a person's lifetime which will leads to materialistic waste through different themes eg. hoarding, keeping things as a keepsake, memories, traces.

These are the following clothes that I plan to use in my photoshoot to highlight my theme of materialistic waste:

- My nan's function dress- she often had these handmade for functions that she went to in the 60s due to my Grandad being in the Marines. She would barely ever use them more than once such as the dress above, (unfortunately I couldn't find this specific dress but a similar one that would have had the same outcome) and then it would be stored away literally and metaphorically in memory, this causes materialistic waste and waste of labour as they would have been specially made to be used once.

- My mum's wedding dress- this is a very obvious one-use item of clothing, never used again by the same person, stored away as a memory despite having all of the photographs from the day. We as human beings seem to have this need to use all our senses when remembering things which in most cases is a constructive thing however in this case is waste- using touch, sight, smell etc. Both of these images & items of clothing link back to a time I don't have any personal memory which I feel heightens this need to a variety of sensory connections. In America, there are approx. 2.5 million wedddings every year, this creates a very shocking estimated amount of wedding dresses newly bought which of majority will not be recycled generating a huge amount of waste in America alone.

- My christening dress- a personal memory obviously too early to remember personally, a very important memory and time in my life and stages in most people's lives eg. christening, holy communion, birthdays, weddings etc.

- My sister's prom dress- the clearest and most recent memory for all of us and in a way interestingly the most vibrant as if this reflects how much memory has faded in the other three events all over 18 years old in our family.

- All events are from different female figures in my immediate family- three different generations & they are all very important moments that we will most likely all go through.

After I began trying out ways to recreate poses in the images I first thought about having the images next to each other similar to Irina Werning's recreations but I started to think it would be better if they were just alone, the void which the audience have to fill in, can then relate to them and draw up their own personal experiences and the way that they have wasted these items of clothing through either throwing them away, losing them or storing them in the attic and in turn in a way this has therefore metaphorically wasted away their memories. 

These are my intial experiments with ways to construct a human form:

With the top two I used a light duty wire to build framework to bulk out the clothing in the way they are in the photographs; I gathered the christening dresses material in a similar way as well as padding out the arms with bubblewrap and pinning them in place which I think is very effective. Meanwhile for the function/ball dress again I bulked it out with a wire frame pinning it into the dress and then I stitched black thread into the top allowing me to hang it at the level it would have been when worn.

For my mother's wedding dress and probably my sister's prom dress I would use a mannequin as it makes it quite easy to get the correct height etc. and again I would pin the arms in the right places. I went out last weekend and bought 5 metres of black fabric, when shooting I will create a backdrop with the material and then cover the mannequins neck and chest area (whatever is showing) so that when shooting it would blend in with the background creating the look of it floating without a human form inside.

I have chosen black material to create this sense of a void, the item of clothing has been frozen in time at the moment that it was used always stuck at this point, never to be worn again, a wasted material of our society. It gives this sense of fragility & feeling that it is untouchable, but also unlocated from use, it could also be a metaphor for the wasted space all of these items are being held in.